Field of the Invention
The present invention generally relates to the use of respiratory devices, such as inhalers and spirometers, and more particularly to a system and method of encouraging compliance with a usage plan and for monitoring and tracking that compliance.
Description of the Related Art
Inhalers are commonly used to provide oral or intra-nasal medication to patients. They can be used for relief on an as-needed basis, as well as for application of a prescribed course of treatment. The user segment of particular significance to the present invention is the large population for whom there is a prescribed course of treatment using an inhaler. The effectiveness of the treatment regimen is dependent on compliance with the treatment regimen, and this has traditionally been a problem area. There are approximately 26 million persons in the United States alone who suffer from chronic asthma, and whose poor adherence rate greatly contributes to an estimated $300 billion in preventable indirect and direct medical costs annually. On average, children and adults adhere to their prescription schedule with less than 50% success rate (i.e., they skip their medication more than 50% of the time). One easily quantifiable direct cost of poor adherence is the $18 billion spent on Emergency Room (ER) visits where poor inhaler medication adherence is cited as the number one cause for ER visits.
A higher degree of compliance would improve results in many cases, and in those cases where the treatment is ineffective the physician and patient can move on to a different solution rather than continuing with a course of treatment thinking that it would be effective if followed.
The medical field has long recognized the problem of a patient visiting a physician and having very imprecise recollection of how often the inhaler has been used. Solutions proposed include those described in U.S. Pat. No. 6,958,691 to Anderson, et al, U.S. Patent No. 6,202,642 to McKinnon, U.S. Patent No. 5,363,842 to Mishelevich, Published U.S. Patent Application No. 2011/0253139 of Guthrie, et al, Published U.S. Patent Application No. 2009/0194104 of Van Sickle, and published international application WO 2014/004437 of Engelhard, et al. These prior solutions monitor usage and track adherence, but are often bulky, or require customized inhalers (i.e., cannot be easily fitted to and operated with any inhaler already in use). Some also require special purpose hardware to collect data and forward it to the physician. And all are inadequate as to providing encouragement and incentives for adherence.
An additional problem, exacerbated by failure to use an inhaler as prescribed, but a separate problem nonetheless, is the difficulty in obtaining sufficient data regarding changes in lung function, and in making timely adjustments of a prescribed treatment regimen in accordance with updated lung function.